I had gone to Munich for the Opening Ceremony of the World Cup. Though I could not manage to get a ticket for the stadium, my friends in Munich had decided to watch the games at the Fifa Fan Fest which was being held at the Olympia park. The Train from Trento to Munich was full of crowd both old and young who were going to Munich for the same reason. The Munich Hauptbahnhof was dressed for the occassion. All the stalls and kiosks were decorated with football themes. Flags from the participant nations were all around.
The afternoon of the D-day was full of enthusiasm. One could feel the pulse of excitement among the people, as if something great was being anticipated. There were people from all over the world, dressed in their flag colors, interesting costumes etc. We took a small walk through the Karlplatz to Marienplatz. The mood all along was festive, supporters of several countries, Mexico in majority among the foreigners, were flooding the streets. The game was starting at 6 so we planned to reach the Olympia park at 4 to get in. The way to the park was full of people everywhere. I had never seen so many people in Munich before, also never before I was in Munich during a World Cup. Germany was playing the opening match, so German supporters were for sure pumped up. On the way to the park, we noticed some people going in the opposite direction. The reason was the huge queue lined up at the entrance to the enclosure where the games were being shown. We waited for our turn, but around 530 we were told that the maximum capacity of the place was fulled, and they could not let in anymore people. To our badluck the whole of 20,000 places were taken already. So we went to a nearby restaurant to watch the match. In the evening afer Germany had won, the whole of Munich was celebrating it. Pepole were partying on the streets till the early morning.
The next day we went almost 5 hours ahead of the match to get in. It was England playing Paraguay and there British supporters were already filling in the places. We waited in the hot sun endlessly. There were some small fun games organised by the Fifa guys. There were several shops and stalls in the enclosure selling official Fifa goods. When the match started, the crowd was uproarious. After the goal was scored the whole park was echoing with the song "Its coming home ....". After the match the English fans were rejoicing as before. All in all it was a great experience for the two days. I had taken several snaps and have uploaded some of them here.
No comments:
Post a Comment